Report (in Swedish)
The report is only available in Swedish
On the 12th of September the Swedish people woke up to a new political reality. A coalition of three blue-brown right wing parties, supported by a small center-right liberal party, had won a small majority in the election for the national parliament. The prime minister post will most likely be from the traditionally biggest right wing party - Moderaterna. But now the extreme right wing party Sverigedemokraterna has grown even bigger - which makes the coalition strongly dependent on them.
Because of Sweden’s reputation for progressive politics, the news that the country now has an extreme right wing party in a governmental coalition has reached far. The effects that this might have, and potential conflicts this will create, in political areas such as migration are obvious, especially between Liberalerna and Sverigedemokraterna. Less known and less discussed are the potential conflicts within environmental politics.
To expose the differences within the blue - brown political parties, who are right now in negotiations for entering or supporting the government, we decided to review their track record in environmental politics in relation to the Swedish state budget. The result shown in our report is clear. (Only available in Swedish).
The three far right wing parties within the coalition - Sverigedemokraterna, Moderaterna and Kristdemokraterna - all have some kind of anti-environmental politics, suggesting big cuts in environmental budget appropriations, such as those aiming to restore or save biodiversity, and to cut climate funding to reduce carbon emissions as well as foreign aid. They have also suggested either decreases or abolition of environmental taxes. If these proposals were to become real, it would dismantle Swedish environmental politics, and totally change the picture of a country which in many ways has been a forerunner.
The smallest party - Liberalerna - differs from the others. It has reasonably decent environmental politics. Not radical, but they are still conscious and aware of the problems. It also has relatively high ambitions in biodiversity (from a Swedish perspective), and is well aware of the need to abolish fossil fuel subsidies and be a friend of the polluter pays principle (at least in theory).
In this new political situation it is obvious that Liberalerna is the only party within the coalition with any environmental ambitions. They will need to fight not only on migration, but also on climate, biodiversity and aid. The environmental movement - with New Weather Sweden, as well as organisations such as Greenpeace Sweden and The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, highlighted this in an op ed in Dagens Nyheter the 10th of October.
Together we are demanding that Liberalerna should stand up for its politics in a situation where a huge range of environmental work is threatened. It is more important than ever, otherwise we may be seeing a dismantling of Swedish environmental politics that has not been seen in decades. And its reputation as a forerunner will be transformed into that of a sinking ship.